Of course, with the NBA’s apron systems, cashing checks alone is not enough to assemble talent. Since making the trade for Towns and re-signing Anunoby, the Knicks have known that they will have to deal with at least one apron this year, and – more than likely – two.
The NBA’s current official projections put the 2025-26 “second apron” threshold at $207,824,000. The Knicks, for now, will come in slightly under the mark if they let Precious Achiuwa walk and sign their two 2025 first-round picks. But this means losing spending power before any free agency additions – and, as will be seen below, they will not want Achiuwa to walk.
Those same NBA projections currently put the luxury tax threshold at $187,895,000, and the first apron threshold at $195,945,000. The Knicks should therefore be expected to be operating over both of those, and being over just the first apron means they will not be able to acquire players via sign-and-trades, use trade exceptions from previous years, or use the Bi-Annual exception at all. In trades, they will not be allowed to take back more than 100 percent of the salary they send out, and they use the MLE, they will be limited to the taxpayer-sized portion (currently projected to be worth $5,685,000), with the second apron then becoming a hard cap.
Should the Knicks surpass the second apron as well, then, in addition to the above, they will also be limited to just using the minimum salary contract to add external free agents. Being over the second apron also would prohibit them from aggregating contracts nor trade multiple players in the same deal, while also forbidding them from sending cash out in trades. And finally, second apron teams cannot trade first-round picks that are seven years in the future, limited only to six.
Those are a good many prohibitions on a team’s spending power, and the Knicks will therefore want to strike gold in free agency with the minimum salary.
What they will not realistically be able to do is run back the same team, hope for perfect health, and be considered favorites for the title. They will need to add some more pieces. However, given how aggressive they have been in recent seasons on the market for impact players, such aggression should be expected again in what is expected to be a “chaotic” summer.
